Qualitative aspects of teaching and manipulative skill enhancement: Is there any relationship?

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between certain qualitative aspects of teaching and students' achievement in fundamental manipulative skills. Six elementary physical education teachers were required to teach to their students an eight-lesson unit in throwing and catching, as part of their normal curriculum. Students were pre- and post-tested on the above manipulative skills using the Test of Gross Motor Development (Ulrich, 1985) for the qualitative performance and the Michigan Educational Assessment Program (MEAP, 1984) for the quantitative performance. All lessons were video- and audio-taped, and coded using the Qualitative Measures of Teaching Performance Scale (QMPTS: Rink and Werner, 1989) to evaluate teaching performance. Results showed that the total QMTPS score was significantly correlated with a) quantitative performance on catching, and b) qualitative performance on throwing. A correlation (although not significant) was also found between the total QMTPS score and a) student overall performance, b) student overall quantitative performance. It seems that certain qualitative aspects of teaching contribute to fundamental manipulative skill enhancement.